


Daybreak (we may never be able to return to this moment)

by pinemartin



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Dark Harry, Drabble, Established Relationship, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, POV Ginny Weasley, Post Hogwarts AU, Post-Battle of Hogwarts, Relious themes, Scars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-08
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-03-02 03:43:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13309707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinemartin/pseuds/pinemartin
Summary: A drabble I wrote tonight on a whim. Written from Ginny's point of view.Ginny is tasked with waking Harry and the dark lord. Against her better judgement, quite honestly. In the early morning light, after the battles had ended, Ginny is given a few clues into the Dark Lord's past and his relationship with Harry as she reflects on the war and what is to come after."Ginny knew why she had been saddled with the task of “retrieving” the Dark Lord. As one of Harry's lieutenants, she was the least likely to be killed, cursed, or maimed for disturbing the two. So that's how she found herself at the door to his rooms... She still didn't like it.•"He spared a glance out the window, the three of them pausing to watch as the sun finally broke over the horizon, Ginny watching as it painted Harry's face in a soft, buttery yellow light. His gaze softened as he spoke again."





	Daybreak (we may never be able to return to this moment)

Title partially original. The part in parenthesis is from a song, To be alone - lofi hiphop mix pt.2. the Artist of the mix track is unknown to me, I originally saw it posted by ChilledCow as part of a series, but they no longer have this particular track on their channel. There are other channels that have posted the song back up, if you'd like to listen to it. The part I quote is pretty early on, a minute or two in.

I claim no party to the creation of Harry Potter. All I own is my creative license to take the premise and run for the hills.

 

•••

Ginny knew why she had been saddled with the task of “retrieving” the Dark Lord. As one of Harry's lieutenants, she was the least likely to be killed, cursed, or maimed for disturbing the two. She knew this, but it still didn't make it any easier to overcome the several years of ingraining they had all received that they should never enter the Dark Lord's private rooms.

Normally, this would have been a task for one of the several house elves bound to either of the notorious pair, the Dark Lord and Harry, but after the battle last night, they were all either indisposed with repairing the foundation of the manor, which had sustained heavy damage during the fight, or they were like many of the Dark Lord's army indisposed due to injuries. This left any of the high ranking circle and lieutenants the horrid honour of rousing the two.

Ginny knew that they had been awake late into the early morning, and likely were exhausted, but they were facing several major issues at the moment that called for either the tactical knowledge of Harry, or the vast knowledge of the Dark Lord. With the Hogwarts wards not falling like they had been expected too, there was a large number of both sides of the short battle that had been waged there trapped inside with no information being able to be passed by either side. They had no way of knowing what side had prevailed, or if they even knew that the dark had prevailed in the other battles. Lucius was particularly worried about what they might find upon eventually gaining access, and had insisted on getting the dark lord to bring the wards down.

Really, Ginny knew the Lord was probably one of the only people aside from Harry that could get that access, as the two were the only surviving heirs of the founders, and the reigning Lord-of-too-many-names (not that she'd ever call him that to anyone's face but Harry's) had the most Ward knowledge out of anybody on their side.

So that's how she found herself at the door to his rooms. She still didn't like it.

Pushing the door open, she found herself in a brief sitting room, open through directly to the large bedroom she could see past it. The chairs looking well enough worn to look antique, but still nice enough to ensure their value and beauty. She walked past them and their lovely, matching antique marble coffee table with her wand out and guard up, knowing there was a possibility she might either trip a ward or find herself at curse-point any second. She stepped under the slight arch in the ceiling, past to the bedroom and stopped, surprised neither had come to pass.

The room was large, but not excessively so. A couple doors could be seen off to the sides, and a small vanity taking up space on the wall She was flush with, a writing desk some space on the opposite one. To her left was a wall covered mostly with bookshelves. At the center of this wall was a bay window with a window seat, the soft velvet curtains drawn back to let in natural light, several books piled haphazardly on the cushioned seat.

To her right, on the wall opposite the bookshelves and bay window was the large bed. Bookended by night tables, the bed was a heavy, darkly stained wood, beautifully aged like the seating set she had passed. The bed was covered in mostly black bedding, a velvet throw messily covering most of it, and a shock of white and black fur seemed to be another throw, although this one was hanging mostly off the bed, trailing on the hardwood floor.

In the bed were the two in question that Ginny had been sent for. Seeing the two like this didn't surprise her, nor did it set her ill at ease. She's seen them in various states of intimacy over the times and it no longer shocked any of the inner circle. It came from spending so much extended time in the Dark Lord's mansion, she would guess. Seeing them now tangled together under the sheets that had fallen low didn't faze her, in fact she rather wished there was a way to use this as blackmail, but it was not the time for such playing right now. They had won the war and much hard work lay ahead of them before they could relax so far again.

It must only have been about three hours since she had last seen them. She remembered the Dark Lord making his way through the carnage and wreckage that used to be the manicured lawns of his drive to grab Harry and drag him back upright from his fallen spot on the ground he had landed himself in after falling over a recently demolished stone bench. Ginny had been nearby, checking in with Draco and the Twins, and they'd all heard the Dark Lord mutter, despairing how somebody so skilled in combat could be fallen by some simple stone work. Ginny had watched as Harry had smiled up at him and quipped back, brightly for someone leaning into the support offered and pressing a hand to a bloody spot on their side.

 _“Says the one who ran into the doorframe just last week.”_ Harry remained the only one able to tease him like such. Maybe in time, after the tensions from the war had lessened, the Dark Lord might grow more at ease with his closest group of followers. Friends they might be to him behind closed doors, but with everything that had been coming for them, it seemed like they had to have been strung up on high alert for _decades_ , not allowing themselves to let go so far when out in the open.

Here in their room, in the dim light of the not quite rising sun coming in through the bay window, they were more relaxed than she's seen them in the past few weeks. The Dark Lord, Tom (looking like he had all those years ago in the chamber, albeit quite a bit older) was laying with his back to her, Harry curled into his chest on the other side, their arms around each other, at the moment dead to the world.

The sheets rode low enough that Ginny could see all of Tom's back. The muscles under his skin moved slowly as he breathed, the skin far from smooth or unblemished. Pale, was what it was, crossed with many long and short scars, long since bleached white with their age. Whip and flog marks alike, the scattered carved mark among them littered the skin from shoulders down, disappearing beneath the sheet. High at the top of his back, below his neck and between his shoulder blades sitting like a crown jewel was the worst of them. Ivory white like the rest, and plasticky in the sheer severity of it's damage was the mark of a Cross, burned into the spot like a brand. Harry's tanned arm that was slung over Tom's ribs rested high against his back, fingers touching the base of the Cross. The scars on Harry's arm standing out starkly on his light brown skin, especially the words etched into his hand.

As Ginny watched silently, Tom slowly awakened, blinking and inhaling deeply as he rolled over to face her, Harry's hand dragging softly over his back until it rested at Tom's side. From this angle she could see scripture carved into his chest, directly over his heart. A mix of Latin and English, as old as all the other marks. On Harry's chest, still facing her, she could see the Cross there, this scar being one she'd seen enough times before for its rough and jagged edges to be familiar to her, its vivid pale lines not far off in color from the bandages wrapped around his no-longer-bleeding side. It echoed eerily with the Cross no longer visible that she now knew to be on Tom's back, in the same place as the scripture on Tom's chest. She knew neither of them to be particularly religious, although she'd heard Harry metre out a religious script during a study session once, sounding rather scathingly and rough despite the flat, stoney look on his face at the time. He hadn't been looking at the page in question they had been referencing. He hadn't missed a single word of the passage either.

Harry's face now pressed into his shoulder, Tom focused on Ginny. At his pointed look she began. “My lord,” she started softly, tilting her head down slightly, “there’s been an issue with the wards at Hogwarts,” at his slightly drawn eyebrows she continued. “The wards never fell and none of us have been able to breach them. They've strengthened, we can't even see passed the gates any more”

Harry, who had awoken rather quickly at her speaking slowly sat up, attention sharp and directed on her.

“Any word from those inside the castle?” He asked as he stopped, Tom rising beside him. It had been mostly Harry's group to lead that battle due to their less caustic tendencies, she wasn't surprised to see the Dark Lord let Harry take over the report, as informal as it was.

“No, we've not been able to get anything across, and nothing's reached us.” She watched as Harry grabbed a robe thrown over a bed post, swinging it around his shoulders as he gingerly stood, tossing a second to Tom who caught it easily, mirroring Harry's actions.

It was Tom who seamlessly picked up the conversation as he walked to a door on the far wall. “Hogwarts may have locked down the wards at start the battle. I imagine she thought it to minimize any attempts to flee the grounds, likely keeping any students safe from that further battle...” His voice pettered off as he opened the door to reveal a walk in closet which he promptly disappeared in.

Harry made his way over to her, grabbing her arm and pulled her to the sitting area she had passed, lowering her into one of the chairs, taking her armoured outer robe from her shoulders and hanging it on a nearby hook before joining her at the table.

“Has anything else come up since we retreated?” he asked with a slight smile as he conjured a tea set and set the pot to boiling with a couple charms. He played mother and made her cup up, handing it to her and setting to make his own.

“Not really. Nothing unexpected, at least. Most were all but ready to give up, very few are resisting. I think they been waiting for the end mostly; the people haven't looked to the light side for a while now. Those that are resisting are either under direct watch or have been locked in the dungeons for now. Those left from the battles here and at the ministry are coming quietly enough.” Ginny set her tea down to rub her eyes, the residual warmth on her finger tips from the cup feeling quite nice, actually. Harry set his cup aside and started making another. “Lucius and Barty aren't surprised; say there has been enough dissent in the Auror ranks to warrant the easy switch in sides. Many were found to have held back at the edges of the fight, or had fled early on. The staunchest supporters for the other side are mostly… dead really. Most have been accounted for, at least the ones we knew of.”

“We'll have to see what can be done about those with heavy dissent,” Tom spoke as he rounded around her, now dressed in a fitted robe, another armoured one like he'd worn yesterday, the sleeves also tied up to his elbows like that one. Her eyes followed as he walked to stand behind the chair Harry was in, easily taking the cup Harry passed him. His hair was combed back in place, the brown waves falling to his temples, and he looked completely put together if you negated the slight bruising under his eyes and the cut she could see high on his cheek bone. “If we can't bring them to our side, the easiest thing to do would be get rid of them,” Tom's eyes cut to Harry as Harry frowned slightly at him and he continued smoothly, “but if we can bind them or get their oath, we could simply exile them from the country. Remove them. Some might find it preferable.”

“Specifically those with families, I'll bet you,” Harry muttered as he stood. He moved toward the closet as he continued. “I’ll get dressed and meet you guys down in the meeting room a couple minutes.” He spared a glance out the window, the three of them pausing to watch as the sun finally broke over the horizon, Ginny watching as it painted Harry's face in a soft, buttery yellow light. His gaze softened as he spoke again. “See if we can spare a house elf to make or retrieve something to eat, some coffee, tea, and pastries at the least. It's the dawn of our reign-” Harry smirked at this, Ginny heard Tom scoff slightly as he joined her side as she stood and walked to the window, “- we should celebrate at least a little bit.”

The three stood for a moment looking out the glass as the sunlight stretched slowly over the untouched back garden, the dew on the flora sparkling up at them.

Harry softly broke the hush. “Well, at least not be starving as we move into the morning. Let's see if we can figure out the wards at Hogwarts and start some shifts to work on the pressing stuff so some people can rest.”

Harry moved off into the closet as Ginny and Tom turned for the door, Ginny grabbing her outer robe on the way, following him out. She spared one last glance out the window, taking in the soft sun as it slowly crested over the distantly foggy horizon. A sun that would have shone the same no matter what the outcome of the battles had been. She closed the door behind her, the soft snick of the latch unheard by her as the only thought in her mind in that one moment was that she was glad the sun rose to paint a living Harry in it's light. She didn't think for one moment that the World wouldn't be razed to the ground by the Dark Lord had Harry not survived this war. She wished to not live long enough to see his end; in fact she hoped dearly for the World that he never had one, that it never had to face a single moment where the Dark Lord lived and Harry did not. She doubted anything or anybody would be left standing for very long.

•••

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this on a whim as I was sort of daydreaming and building this scene and world. Usually I don't decide to write them down, in fact this is the first time I've done so, and I thought I might post it. This is the first story of mine in the Harry Potter world, and my first posted story here on AO3. I did have a very bad fic or two I posted like 5 or so years ago on FFN, but those were laughably horrible. I hope this one is okay.  
> I'm not opposed to actually writing a story set in this world, either a prelude story that leads up to this scene, or a story the goes from this scene forwards, slowly filling in some gaps and fully fleshing out characteristics early on. Just give me some feedback if you'd be interested in reading something like that, either way.  
> Please comment anything, I'm down to hear anything you guys have to say, leave some kudos if you liked the short or you'd like me to write a full story!  
> Gtg, my cat is snoring and I have to give her an obligatory poke to annoy her. Make sure she's not drooling on my bed, you know, the usual.


End file.
